The human rights situation in Belarus in November can be described as
a period of stagnation and crisis: the stably bad situation remained
the same, and a significant deterioration was registered.

This
characteristic ensues from the general crisis in the relations
between the Belarusian authorities and the European Union, as far as
the level of respect to human rights in Belarus strongly depends on
the foreign policy factors. In fact, the exchange of messages between
the Belarusian side and representatives of the European community
lasted throughout the month. The statements concerned the
possibilities to renew the dialogue and cooperation, and the
preconditions for this.

On 14 November, at the expert
conference "Belarus at the crossroads of integration: the
relationships with the EU in the situation of forming a Eurasian
Union", the head of the European Union mission in Belarus Maira
Mora reported that a technical dialogue between Brussels and official
Minsk was going on, but noted that the negotiations were very
difficult due to the failure of the Belarusian side to implement the
main requirement – the "liberation and restoration of rights
of political prisoners." "The relations between
the EU and Belarus were once much better than now", – said M.
Mora.

"The relations between the EU and Belarus are at a
stage when the parties need to take time for reflection", said
the British Ambassador to Belarus Bruce Bucknall on 14 November.
According to him, the EU offers clear conditions that must be
fulfilled in order to improve relations. "The most important one
is the release of political prisoners. Belarus is in Europe, and we
want to see that it shares European values", said the
diplomat.The
Belarusian side, in its turn, replied: "If you want us to change
in the desirable direction, then sanctions is not the best way",
stated A. Lukashenka in an interview to "Reuters" on 26
November. "We have already made so many steps at the request of
the EU and certain politicians that one could walk 10 kilometers, but
have received no promised steps towards us. Therefore, it's up to you
to conclude who is to make such steps now. We are ready to do it, but
you must not come to us for negotiations and audiences and put
conditions to us. We have implemented several dozens of such
conditions and have received increased sanctions in response."
Lukashenka also pointed that almost all people convicted in the
aftermath of the presidential election had been released. "You
have come to me and said that Europeans demanded their release. I
said fine, but according to our laws. You have to appeal to the
President to get pardoned. All those who had appealed, were pardoned,
despite their guilt. One or two have not applied. They say they feel
better in prison, they will be heroes then. Alright, let you stay in
jail," added A. Lukashenka.

Thus, the EU has consistently
demanded the release of all political prisoners, without any
exceptions, to restore relations with the official Minsk, which, in
its turn, waited for a positive reaction to each of the previous
intermediate steps. This deadlock could not find a positive solution,
and 12 political prisoners remained hostage to the stubborn position
of the Belarusian authorities.

At the same time, Aliaksandr
Lukashenka returned to rejecting the existence of political
prisoners. During the October press conference for Russian regional
journalists he said: "We have two or three prisoners, who
stormed and broke the House of Government", whereas in the
interview with "Reuters" he said: "What for do you
smother Belarus with sanctions? You say, there are some political
prisoners here. Well, come and show at least one political prisoner,
but as specialists. Show at least one person illegally convicted by
us, and we'll show you all our materials."

The same
position was also voiced concerning the convicted head of the Human
Rights Center "Viasna" Ales Bialiatski, sentenced to 4.5
years in prison on charges of tax evasion. At his meeting with
students of the Belarusian State Economic University on 13 November
Lukashenka stated about double standards in the assessment of the
case: "The information was given to us by the European Union
through Lithuania, where he kept his money. Well, in America, you can
get a life sentence for tax evasion – this is normal."

Aliaksandr Lukashenka also denied the existence of problems in other
spheres of human rights, including freedom of speech and expression.
In the same interview, he told "Reuters": "We can not
close people's access to the media. All Russian channels are
broadcast," Euronews ", CNN, BBC, BBC, we receive the
"Reuters" news line. There is Internet in everyone's
houses. Please, open and read if you like." Meanwhile, foreign
mass media have been still subject to censorship, and the existing
Belarusian ones (both national and regional) were under pressure,
forced to survive in discriminative conditions. The criminal cases
against the journalist Andrei Pachobut and the student-journalist
Anton Surapin (who was the first to post "Teddy Troopers"
on his website in July) were not dropped. The practice of harassment
of media personnel for the performance of their professional duties
continued.

Arbitrary detentions and administrative punishments
were still used towards activists of public organizations and
movements and political parties. The persons who tried to express
alternative opinions through public events, faced severe
restrictions. The practice of pressure and harassment of human rights
defenders human rights organizations continued too.

An
important event in the field of human rights was the official
inauguration of the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human
rights in Belarus, Miklos Haraszti on 1 November. The Rapporteur
addressed his first official statement to the Belarusian civil
society and the Government of Belarus to call both sides to open
dialogue in order to promote and protect human rights in the country.
According to the expert, his first step will be to seek a meeting
with the Government of Belarus to discuss ways to share information
needed for a better implementation of his mandate. "Open
channels of communication and dialogue with the authorities and other
stakeholders are necessary to ensure the accuracy of the reports that
I must submit to the Human Rights Council and the General Assembly
next year in accordance with my mandate", said Mr. Haraszti. The
Belarusian human rights community responded to the invitation of the
Special Rapporteur, and on 12-13 November the Belarusian Human Rights
House in Vilnius hosted a meeting of the Belarusian human rights
defenders with Miklos Haraszti. Consultations were held on a wide
range of issues concerning the human rights situation in Belarus.

At
the same time, the official Minsk repeated that it did not recognize
the mandate of the Special Representative. On 20 November the
Belarusian delegation stated at the 67th session of the UN General
Assembly that it did not support the resolution on the report of the
UN Council on Human Rights. According to the Counselor of the
Permanent Mission of Belarus to the UN Larysa Belskaya, the decision
was made by the Belarusian side for reasons of principle, including
those related to the adoption by the Council of a resolution in July
2012 that established the "politically motivated mandate of the
Special Rapporteur on Belarus": "We have repeatedly stated
that the Council's decision had nothing to do with the real situation
of human rights in Belarus and is aimed at interfering with the
internal affairs of our country. Both the resolution and the mandate
of the Special Rapporteur on Belarus were imposed on the
international community by a group of EU states which promote their
political agenda in the Council. The main task of the resolution and
the mandate based at it is deliberate anti-government activities in
Belarus under the cover of the UN."

Political
prisoners. Criminal prosecution of public activists

On 5
November the grandmother of the political prisoner Yauhen Vaskovich
received a letter in which he asked not to file any complaints and
show no initiative concerning his case."The press can write
about me. But not often, and only that I am a prisoner. " He
also asked that the press did not write about the specific content of
his letters. It is possible that the publication of some details of
Yauhen's life in the press and electronic media irritates the prison
administration, which has a negative impact on the prisoner.

On
8 November MEP Marek Migalski sent an appeal to the prison #4 in
Mahiliou and the Head of the MIA Department of Corrections, asking to
stop the repression of the former presidential candidate Mikalai
Statkevich. The reason for the appeal was the information that the
prison administration seeks to isolate him completely: he was not
allowed to meet with an Orthodox priest, the correspondence is
blocked, parcels, newspapers and books do not reach him. On 9
November Mikalai Statkevich met with his counsel. Referring to the
counsel's words, the wife of the political prisoner Maryna Adamovich
said that M. Statkevich had been transferred to another cell with
better conditions, and on 1 November he had been visited by an
Orthodox priest. Maryna Adamovich also told about the reaction of the
administration of the Mahiliou prison to Statkevich's complaint about
non-issuance of hygienic means despite the exaction of money on it
from his pension. "They tried to convince him that the
expenditures on toilet paper, soap, razors and so on had no relation
to the exacted money. At the same time, he was promised that all
these things will be issued to prisoners starting from the new
year."

On 8 November it became known that the political
prisoner Zmitser Dashkevich had been transferred to the prison #1 in
Hrodna. On 9 November he had a meeting with his counsel, who then
told about the details of escorting his client from Mazyr to Hrodna.
As it turned out, the process of the transfer started on 4 November.
He spent a day in the Mahiliou prison and one more day – in the
Baranavichy prison. In the morning of 7 November he arrived at the
Hrodna prison, where he spent a day in quarantine, after which he was
transferred to a cell in the new prison building, called "American"
because of the greater control on part of the administration in
comparison to the old building. At the same time, the question of
sleeping places is not so acute in the new building. The conditions
in Hrodna prison have no considerable differences from those in the
cell-type buildings in the Hlybokaye and Mazyr prisons, where
Dashkevich was kept before this. On 15 November the counsel had
another meeting with Dzmitry Dashkevich. As it is known, the
political prisoner is kept in the cell alone. In the conditions of
high security he is allowed to receive only one parcel weighing 2
kilograms a year, so he has to eat what is given in prison. In the
local kiosk he can buy something after filing an application, for no
more than 100,000 rubles a month (about $ 12).

On 8 November
the 22-year-old deputy head of the youth association "Union of
Young Intellectuals," mechanic of the "Naftan"
enterprise Andrei Haidukou from Navapolatsk was detained in Vitsebsk.
Several days after it he was transferred to the remand prison of the
KGB in Minsk. An activist of the organizing committee of the
Belarusian Christian Democracy Party, Navapolatsk citizen Illia
Bahdanau was interrogated on the case and released from jail under a
written recognizance not to leave. The KGB official website reported
that "the State Security Committee prevented the illegal
activities of a citizen of the Republic of Belarus, who was engaged
by a foreign intelligence service in collection and transmission of
information of political and economic nature. This citizen was
detained by the KGB while making a cache with some information
requested by foreign intelligence services. A criminal case under
part 1 of Article 356 of the Criminal Code of Belarus "Treason
in the form of intelligence activities" was instigated against
him, a complex of operational-investigative activities aimed at
identifying other episodes of his illegal activities is conducted."
On 22 November the civil initiative "European Belarus"
stated that Andrei Haidukou was arrested when transporting a part of
the circulation of the newspaper "Charter'97" for
distribution in the Vitsebsk region. On 29 November it became known
that he would be transferred from the KGB detention center to prison
#2 in Vitsebsk.

On 9 November the political prisoner Eduard
Lobau, who is serving a sentence in Ivatsevichy colony #5, met with a
priest. The last meeting of the believer with the priest took place
almost a year ago. On 16-19 November the mother of Eduard Lobau,
Maryna Lobava, had a long-term meeting with her son. She reported
that the son did not complain about the conditions of detention, he
was still in a good health, although he had recently had a cold, but
then felt better, kept cheerfully and was in a good mood. According
to her, Eduard didn't work in the colony as far as there was no work
there – only one working brigade was left. Instead of it, he read a
lot. He was subscribed to many newspapers and received all of them.
He had no problems with the administration of the colony and other
prisoners.

On 10 November the mother of Ihar Alinevich, who
is serving a prison sentence in the Navapolatsk colony, had a
long-term appointment with her son, which was abridged from three
days to just one. The colony administration did not let her pass
food, including two sacks of apples she wanted to donate to the
brigade where her son was kept. Ihar Alinevich has been deprived of
food parcels for the last six months. He is a vegetarian. The sum of
money he could spend on food and means of hygiene was decreased to
100,000 Belarusian rubles (about $12) a month, as he was a
"persistent violator" of the prison regime.

On 21
November the official representative of the Investigative Committee
of the Hrodna region Siarhei Sharshanevich announced continuation of
the preliminary investigation in the criminal case of the Hrodna
correspondent of the Polish weekly «Gazeta Wyborcza» Andrei
Pachobut for another month. According to him, it was done "to
conduct additional investigative and process actions," and a
number of linguistic examinations was appointed "to give an
objective assessment of the actions of the accused." On 29
November Andrei Pachobut was summoned to the investigator's office
and informed about the appointment of another linguistic examination
on his writings, to be held by workers of the Hrodna State
University. It was already the fourth linguistic examination in the
case. The previous ones were carried out by experts of the Academy of
Management under the President, the Belarusian State University and
the Academy of Sciences. A. Pachobut expressed the view that the new
examination was scheduled to give more time to the investigators. The
investigator also familiarized the journalist with the results of
technical examination of the seized computers. "The computers
were well familiar to the experts, who had checked them the previous
time. The result met the expectations: "BelPartizan" and
"Charter'97" were really accessed from the computer. The
text files of the articles which appear in the indictment, were found
there," said Mr. Pachobut. The equipment was not returned to
him, being attached to evidence. Andrei Pachobut was charged under
Part 2 of Article 367 of the Criminal Code "Defamation of the
President of the Republic of Belarus." The case was brought by
the Department of the Investigative Committee of the Hrodna region in
June 2012 on the basis of a number of web-articles by him. On 21 June
his apartment in Hrodna was searched. The journalist was kept in the
remand prison in Hrodna till 30 June, after which he was released on
a written undertaking not to leave the city. According to the
Criminal Code of the Republic of Belarus, he can be punished by
restriction of freedom for up to 5 years, or imprisonment for the
same term. A three-year sentence, imposed on Mr. Pachobut on 5 July
2011 with a 2-year deferment, can be added to this term. At that time
Andrei Pachobut was found guilty of violating Article 367, Part 1,
"Defamation of President". According to the law, if the
convict violated this article during these two years, the 3-year
imprisonment must be used towards him.

On 22 November the the
Prize of Peter Kelly, awarded by Heinrich Böll Foundation to the
head of the Human Rights Center "Viasna" Ales Bialiatski,
was passed to his wife, Natallia Pinchuk. The prize was awarded as a
sign of recognition of Bialiatski's achievements in human rights
advocacy in the authoritarian Belarus. Earlier Ales refused from the
monetary part of the prize, 10,000 Euros, asking to direct these
means on support of human rights activities in Belarus. On 24
November a year has turned since the moment when the Pershamaiski
District Court of Minsk sentenced Ales Bialiatski to 4.5 years of
imprisonment in a maximum security colony with confiscation of
property, including the apartment where the Minsk office of "Viasna"
was situated (the confiscation was appointed on 26 November 2012). On
26 November François
Hollande, the President of the French Republic, awarded the President
of the International Federation for Human Rights Souhayr Belhassen
with the distinction of Knight of the Legion of Honor. He dedicated
this award to all FIDH activists, especially those who were kept in
prison, including the vice-president, Ales Bialiatski. On 29 November
Ales Bialiatski called home from the Babruisk colony. According to
Natallia Pinchuk, she hadn't received letters from him for several
weeks before it, that's why this short call became an important event
for her. Ales Bialiatski said he was aware of the confiscation of the
apartment where the "Viasna" office was situated.

As it became known on 28 November, an ambulatory
sitting of the Shklou District Court on the case of the political
prisoner Mikalai Dziadok was scheduled for 4 December. The question
of directing Mr. Dziadok to a cell-type prison as a "repeated
violator" was to be considered at the sitting. The judge Vital
Volkau allowed Dziadok's counsel to defend him at the trial, but
dismissed the motion for the presence of his father, former judge of
the Minsk Region Court Aliaksandr Dziadok.

According to A.
Dziadok, his son had already 22 penalties for various violations of
discipline, and a special commission upheld his transfer to a
cell-type prison. The father thinks that the real reason for all
these penalties is that the son refuses to sign a petition for
clemency.

As it was found on 28 November, Aliaksandr
Frantskevich, who is serving his prison term in a maximum security
colony "Vouchyia Nory", was placed in a penal cell. His
mother Tatsiana Frantskevich didn't manage to find out for how long
and for what reason he was put there, but does not rule out that it
could be dictated by the wish of the prison administration to
undermine his spirit.

Death
penalty

On 21 November the
mother of the executed death convict Uladzislau Kavaliou received a
decision of the UN Human Rights Committee dated 14 November. The
appeal was considered in a record time – less than a year. The
Committee recognized that the investigation was conducted with
numerous violations: physical violence was used towards Kavaliou, he
was forced to testify against himself. The trial was not impartial
and his right to life was violated. Liubou Kavaliova and her daughter
Tatsiana Kaziar filed the communication to the HRC on 14 December
2011, and it was registered the following day. During the
correspondence with the Committee the Belarusian State kept on
appealing against the registration of the complaint, though its
proceedings were not appealed by any country. In their responses the
Belarusian authorities stressed that the decision of the Human Rights
Committee was politicized and predictable, and therefore would be
implemented by them. What concerns the applicants, Liubou Kavaliova
and Tatsiana Kaziar, the Human Rights Committee acknowledged the
violation of their right to receive the body of the dead relative and
information about the time and place of his burial, and recommended
that the state change Article 175 part 5 of the Criminal Code, which
prohibited the issuance of the bodies to relatives. The state was
also recommended to publish the HRC decision in the state-owned
media. The document was sent both to the applicants (Kavaliova and
Kaziar) and to representatives of the authorities (the Ministry of
Foreign Affairs). Four cases concerning the death verdicts which were
issued in Belarus are still pending at the HRC.

On 30
November activists of the campaign "Human Rights Defenders
against the Death Penalty" joined the worldwide campaign "Cities
for Life, Cities against the Death Penalty". They illuminated
the outer walls of the St. Symon and Alena Church with candles. This
building was not chosen by chance, it is well-known not only in
Minsk, but also abroad. Moreover, the "special corridor"
where death verdicts are implemented is located near the church, in
the remand prison on Valadarski Street 1.

Harassment
of human rights activists and organizations

On
8 November in Sikorski Street in Brest the road police stopped the
car by which the human rights defender Raman Kisliak was driving.
After checking his documents they said Kisliak they detained him
because he allegedly evaded from some administrative proceedings.
When Raman Kisliak was taken to the Leninski District Police
Department of Brest, it was found out that the reason for the
detention was that he refused from fingerprinting. R. Kisliak had
been detained for the same reason before, but applied against the
demand to undergo fingerprinting at the prosecutor's office. However,
on 8 November Mr. Kisliak had to undergo fingerprinting, as otherwise
he could be prohibited to go abroad, which could hinder his human
rights activities. Mr. Kisliak considers as illegal the fact of his
inclusion in the special database, on the basis of which his car was
detained, and stated his detention to appeal this decision.

On
12 November the Vitsebsk human rights defender Pavel Levin who stayed
in place of the explosion near the KGB building in Vitsebsk in the
night time reporting news, was taken to the Kastrychnitski DPD and
fined 200,000 Belarusian rubles (2 basic units) for crossing the road
in the wrong place. The report about the administrative offense was
drawn up by the inspector Baranau. Mr. Levinau believes the inspector
did it on the order of the chief inspector Khaladnou, who demanded
that his subordinate divert attention from the KGB building. Before
this Baranau paid no reaction to the KGB officers who also crossed
the road without using the pedestrian crossing.

As it became
known on 20 November, the appeal instance of the Minsk Economic Court
turned down the appeal against the liquidation of the "Platform"
institution. According to the head of the "Platform" Andrei
Bandarenka, the appeal was considered on 13 November in the absence
of representatives of the institution. The court secretary allegedly
"lost" the appeal of the human rights defenders about the
postponement of the trial, and the judge pretended that it was
impossible to do anything as the trial had already taken place.
Andrei Bandarenka stated that a cassation appeal had been filed to
the Supreme Economical Court. Another appeal was sent to the
prosecutor's office.

On 21 November the human rights defender
Leanid Sudalenka was fined 500,000 rubles (5 basic units) on decision
of the Savetski District Tax Inspection of Homel. He was charged with
not presenting an income and assets declaration (Article 23.9 of the
Code of Administrative Offenses). Bear in mind that the tax
inspection demanded income and assets declarations from Mr.
Sudalenka, his wife and even his son who was is serving in the army.
Leanid Sudalenka refused to present the declaration, and drew a
number of important reasons. First, in 2008 the tax inspection had
already demanded his return, which he had presented, after which the
information from it was published in the state-owned newspaper
"Homelskaya Prauda" which is illegal and violates the law
(disclosure of private information by a duty official). The human
rights defender also asked: who ordered such actions to the
inspection, and why did the inspection pay so much interest to his
family and his son who was in the army? The head of the Savetski
District Tax Inspection Kanstantsin Tratseuski considered an
administrative report against Sudalenka with the words "I have
to do it", after which the human rights defender was immediately
issued with a new demand to present the declaration.

At 10
a.m. on 26 November bailiffs, policemen, a cameraman in mufti,
workers of public utilities and two witnesses came to the apartment
where the office of the Human Rights Center "Viasna" had
been situated for the last 12 years. The court officers sealed the
premises of the organization. A few minutes before the confiscation
of the office the deputy chairman of the Human Rights Center "Viasna"
Valiantsin Stefanovich voiced the statement, adopted by the Board of
the organization. It noted that the loss of office was a serious blow
to "Vasna", but it wouldn't stop its human rights
activities. The organization continues helping the people whose
rights are violated and monitoring the general situation of human
rights in Belarus.

In November, the tax authorities used new
methods of pressure on a member of the Human Rights Center "Viasna",
the President of the Belarusian Human Rights House Tatsiana Reviaka.
The check-up of the income and assets of the human rights defender
for 2004-2010, held by the Pershamaiski District Tax Inspection of
Minsk, found no violations connected to the concealment of income.
However, during the check-up it was found that some data from the
case head of the Human Rights Centre "Viasna" Ales
Bialiatski had been transferred to the tax organ. On 20 and 27
November Tatsiana Reviaka was questioned by the senior tax inspector
of the department of control over income and property declaration of
the Pershamaiski District Tax Inspection Valiantsina Burava
concerning the sums which appear in the criminal case and human
rights activist Ales Bialiatski and which were supposedly transferred
to her. Tatsiana Reviaka was proposed to answer questions concerning
the existence of the accounts in the Lithuanian bank, the purposes of
their opening and details of the transfers of financial means on
them. As it was stated in the protocol of the questioning, "the
inspection has copies of the account statements of AB DnB NORD bank
in Vilnius, Lithuania, according to which the Tatiana Reviaka was the
receiver of the financial means" (from A. Bialiatski). However,
as far as the inspector refused to provide these documents for
studying by Tatsiana Reviaka, the latter refused to answer any
questions concerning them, referring to her constitutional right not
to testify against herself. The inspector Burava stated that the tax
inspection would check the information from Bialiatski's case and
decide whether to consider the means which had been allegedly
transferred to Tatsiana Reviaka as her personal income from which no
taxes were paid.

Pressurization
of social and political activists by security services

On
19 November a member of the Asipovichy District Council, member of
the organizing committee of the Belarusian Christian Democracy
Aliaksei Tsiulkou was summoned to the local KGB. After a lengthy
conversation, which lasted about four hours, he was warned that about
the possibility of his punishment under Article 193.1 of the Criminal
Code for acting on behalf of an unregistered organization. Earlier,
other Asipovichy BCD activists, Uladzimir Klimanovich and Anatol
Tserash, were summonsed to KGB as well.

Administrative
prosecution of social and political activists, arbitrary
detention

On 2 November the
administrative commission of the Slutsk District Executive Committee
found the civil activist Vital Amialkovich guilty of violating the
rules of urban maintenance. During its second sitting, the commission
considered the alleged posting stickers on a lamp-post near a shop as
a proven fact. This was considered as a violation of Article 21.14,
Part 2 of the Code of Administrative Offenses and the urban
maintenance rules adopted by the Slutsk District Executive Committee.
The decision was issued behind closed doors. The head f the
commission Natallia Charnushevich proposed that Amialkovich left the
room after learning that he had recorded the previous sitting on a
Dictaphone. However, this time he managed to find out who had
detained him in the night of 14 November and "seen him pasting
stickers on a pole" – it was the head of the Slutsk District
Police Department Aliaksei Strom. The civil activist disagrees with
the decision of the administrative commission, according to which he
was sentenced to a fine of 1 million rubles, and expressed the
intention to appeal it at the Slutsk District Court.

On 8
November in Svislach (Hrodna region) the police drew up reports of
administrative offense on the local residents Viktar Dzesiatsik, Yury
Hlebik and Anatol Valiuk for taking part in a commemorative action in
honor of the brothers Kanstantsin and Viktar Kalinouski. The Memorial
Day of participants of the anti-Russian uprising of 1863-1864 has
been marked in the Svislach district for 19 years in succession. Its
participants have never violated the public order or staged any
provocations. However, this year four activists were arrested from
different cities of Belarus, three of them were sentenced to
three-day arrest terms, and the fourth – to a fine. Several days
after this the police started disturbing local participants of the
holiday. On 27 November the Svislach District Court considered three
administrative reports, drawn up on Viktar Dzesiatsik, Yury Hlebik
and Anatol Valiuk. The poet Anatol Valiuk was fined first. The judge
Zhana Salahubik, who led the trial, refused to summon his witnesses
referring to the case that they were defendants in a similar case.
The police video from the action was not demonstrated at court that
day. Mr. Valiuk states that he could not be seen on the video and was
really fined just for his presence in the city center on that day.
Afterwards, the judge Salahubik quickly considered two similar cases,
as a result of which the head of the Svislach branch of the
Belarusian Social Democratic Hramada Viktar Dzesiatsik and the member
of the educational public association "Leu Sapeha Foundation"
Yury Hlebik were fined 1 million rubles each.

On 22 November
the civil activist Ales Kirkevich was questioned at the Leninski
District Police Department of Hrodna concerning his participation in
the Insurgents' Day in the Svislach district. Mr. Kirkevich answered
that he had really been at this event in Svislach, and refused to
answer a number of other questions.

On 8 November the judge
of the Maskouski District Court of Minsk Tatiana Motal sentenced the
"Young Front" activist Uladzmir Yaromenak to 15 days of
arrest on charges in disorderly conduct (Article 17.1 of the Code of
Administrative Offenses). The activist was detained in the evening of
6 November on Nezalezhnasts Square in Minsk for spilling valerian
tincture on the monument to Lenin, on the eve of 7 November, the day
of the October Revolution. The purpose of the action was to encourage
cats from the surrounding areas come under the monument and "express
their feelings" towards Lenin. Uladzimir Yaromenak was detained
by the guards of the House of the Government while preparing to the
"cat protest" near the monument and guarded to the
Maskouski District Police Department of Minsk.

On 9 November
the judge of the Maskouski District Court of Minsk Tatiana Motal
sentenced the "Young Front" activist Raman Vasilyeu to 15
days of arrest on charges of disorderly conduct, Article17.1 CAO.
Raman Vasilyeu was detained in Minsk on 8 November and spent the
night in the Maskouski District Police Department. The detention was
conducted when the activist went out of his house, going for a
meeting. The judge considered as "disorderly conduct"
Vasilyeu's participation in the action on Nezalezhnasts Square in
Minsk, where "Young Front" activists had spilled valerian
tincture on the pedestal of the monument to Lenin on the eve of 7
November.

On 18 November the Homel resident Stanislau
Yalenski was returning from Ukraine through the border crossing point
"Novaya Huta" and was stopped by border guards for a
thorough inspection. The reason for this was the application on the
rear window of the car – a bear with a parachute, holding an
inscription "Hi, air defense!" in his hands. One of the
border guards paid a special interest to the bear, asked what the
application meant and then called the head of the shift. The car was
put in a special place. Then there came another border guard with a
camera and took pictures of the bear from all angles. The reaction of
the border guards must be an outcome of the "Teddy Troopers"
action, held in July by Swedish citizens. The Swedes used a light
aircraft to get to the territory of Belarus and drop teddy bears with
demands to respect fundamental rights and civil liberties in the
country.

On 19 November the Baranavichy City and District
Court fined the entrepreneur Mikalai Charnavus was fined 3 million
rubles (3 basic units) for "organizing and holding an
unauthorized mass event", Article 23.34 Part 2 of the
Administrative Code, for organizing a charity dinner at the local
market on 6 October. The sentence was delivered by the judge Aksana
Sarakhman.

On 21 November customs officer held a personal
examination of a coordinator of the youth network of the Trade Union
of Radio-Electronic Industry Andrei Stryzhak. As a result, his laptop
he had was taken away for examination. The detention was conducted by
the senior lieutenant Raman Tofan.

At about 3.30 p.m. on 22
November the police detained the activists of the "European
Belarus" Siarhei Kazakou and Valiantsina Tsiurava for handing
out the "Charter'97" newspaper. The detainees were taken to
the Zavadski DPD and released after 7 p.m.

On 26 November
representatives of political parties and NGOs gathered near the
monument to Uladzimir Karatkevich in Vitsebsk to mark an anniversary
of his birthday. The police considered the reading of his poems and
speeches of lovers of his creative works as an unauthorized mass
event. As a result, the present people had to disperse for fear of
detention. All in all, 14 police officers were present at the action.
All participants of the action were shot on video by a cameraman in
mufti. At first the police just watched the events. Then a policeman
in the uniform, but without a badge with his surname, stated that
those who gathered there were participants of an unauthorized mass
event who used unregistered symbols – he meant the white-red-white
ribbons fastened on the chest of the audience. When the regional
coordinator of the "For Freedom" movement Khrystafor
Zhaliapau asked the policeman to introduce himself, the latter told
he was major Bahdanau and threatened to detain the people if they
refused to disperse. On hearing Bahdanau's words about the
unauthorized event the policemen ringed the action participants. The
people decided not to spoil the celebration of the anniversary by
proceedings at the police and at court, that's why the people
dispersed in 10-15 minutes.

Restrictions
on freedom of speech and the right to impart information, persecution
of journalists

On 13 November it
became known that the former head of the "ARCHE" magazine
Valery Bulhakau had left Belarus. According to him, he was made to do
it due to the investigation which was started against the
intellectual edition by the authorities. He also suggested that the
investigation may consider various options to incriminate him various
crimes: associated either with the spread of extremist publications
or illegal business activities, or the abuse of official position. On
16 November the editorial board of the "ARCHE" magazine
decided not to include the edition in the subscription catalog of
"BelPoshta" for the first half of 2013 and asked this state
enterprise to return to the subscribers the means for the second half
of 2012. According to the statement, published at the website of the
magazine, the edition has experienced a constant pressure since the
middle of September, especially on the part of the Financial
Investigation Department (FID) of the Committee of State Control. "An
enhanced scrutiny of the "ARCHE" business is conducted, its
staff is called for interrogations at the FID, the state TV seeks to
create the impression that some of the historical materials published
in the magazine are extremist. The blockage of the "ARCHE"
accounts disrupted the printing of several issues, which had been
prepared for publication." Appeals to the FID and higher
authorities with the request to unblock the accounts of the edition
were futile", reads the statement. "We do not believe it is
honest to take on new responsibilities to our subscribers while the
old ones remain unimplemented (the editorial board didn't manage to
publish five issues for the second half of 2012). That's why we
decided to refuse from including our edition in the subscription
catalog for the first half of 2013 until the situation becomes clear,
and ask "BelPoshta" to return the "ARCHE"
subscribers the money for the second half of 2012." On 30
November the Minsk City and Region FID Bureau responded to the
written request of the Belarusian Association of Journalists to
unblock the bank accounts of "ARCHE". FID stated that the
editorial board of the magazine failed to provide the necessary
documents for examination. The deputy head of the Minsk City and
Region FID Bureau A.S. Lahunou wrote that this was the reason for
blocking the accounts. However, the editorial board of "ARCHE"
insisted they had passed the FID all the documents which were
demanded from them.

As
it became known on 14 November, Belarus was put on the "Europe
Watch List" of the International Press Institute (IPI). Along
with our country, it includes Turkey, Hungary and Ukraine. All of
them are disturbing examples of deviation from the freedom of the
media in Europe. The list of countries is made on the basis of
reports of experts of IPI and its affiliate, the South East Europe
Media Organization (SEEMO). "Although
the List focuses on particular countries to increase its impact, that
limitation is not a suggestion that other countries lack similar
concerns, but a reflection of IPI and SEEMO’s view that media
freedom in these four particular countries is under major threat",
explains the organization.On
21 November the Belarusian Consulate in Bialystok refused to issue a
long-term visa to the president of the Belarusian Radio "Racyja",
chairman of the Belarusian Union in Poland Jauhen Vapa. In May 2011
his valid Belarusian visa was annulled.

On 22 November the
Svetlahorsk City Executive Committee issued a ruling which obliged
the local enterprises and organizations to subscribe to the state
press for the next year, starting from "Sovetskaya Belorussiya"
and ending with the district state-owned newspaper "Svetlahorskiya
Naviny". The appropriate order of the Director General of the
Svetlahorsk enterprise "Khimvalakno" ("Chemical
Fiber") Vasil Kastsiukevich to its structural subdivision
concerning the obligatory subscription to 8 official newspapers
leaked to the Internet. The heads of the subdivisions were made put
in charge of "organizing the subscription to periodicals among
the subordinates". According to the order, it is done "to
provide a better information of employees about the political,
economic, social and trade union life of the country and the region,"
and for "the formation of a common spirit and goals". To do
this, they must subscribe to 465 copies of "Sovetskaya
Belorussiya", 5 copies of "Zviazda", "Narodnaya
Hazeta" and "Znamia Yunosti", 12 copies of "Gomelskaya
Pravda", 1 copy of "Respublika" and 501 copies of
"Svetlahorskiya Naviny". The practice of forced
subscription to state-owned editions also exists at other
enterprises. The Steel Works Plant, situated in the neighboring town
of Zhlobin, needs to subscribe to the district state-owned newspaper
"Novy Dzen" and the factory one, "Metalurh", in
addition to the aforementioned ones. Rechytsa teachers say they are
being forced to subscribe to "Nastaunitskaya Hazeta" for
the small sums they are issued on the purchase of instructional
materials.

On 12 November 41 copies of the BELARUS PRESS PHOTO
2011 album were taken away from the photographers Yuliya Darashkevich
and Aliaksandr Vasiukovich at the border crossing point "Kamenny
Loh". The photographer and organizer of the "Press-photo of
Belarus" contest Yuliya Darashkevich stated that the customs
officers decided to examine the albums to find whether they had any
information which harmed the Belarusian state. She notes that these
albums were published quite legally and all fees for them had been
paid off a long time ago. On 26 November the Ashmiany customs office
informed A.Vasiukovich that "the printed matter – 41 copies of
BELARUS PRESS PHOTO was recognized illegal (not corresponding to the
State Standard of the Republic of Belarus STB 7.4-2009. "Editions.
Imprint") as a result of the customs examination and must be
destroyed. BELARUS PRESS PHOTO is an annual competition of media
photographers, founded in 2009 by Belarusian photographers. Dozens of
Belarusian photographers take part in this prestigious competition
every year. The final exhibitions are demonstrated far beyond the
Belarusian borders. Two compilation albums of the best photos have
been published so far.

Restriction
of freedom of assembly

On 5
November Vitsebsk members of the Conservative-Christian Party
"Belarusian Popular Front" received an answer from the
Vitsebsk City Executive Committee. They were denied in holding their
procession and meeting, as they intended to hold them in the places
that hadn't been determined by the authorities. At present, there are
three places for mass events in Vitsebsk. All of them are located on
the outskirts of the city. The CCP BPF activists disagree with this
situation: they applied for the authorization of a procession from
the railway station to Lenin Square, where they intended to hold a
picket. The CCP BPF member Yan Dziarzhautsau pointed that on 7
November they planned to talk to citizens about the harmful role of
the communist ideology in the development of Belarus and the
activities of Communists to destroy the national culture, language
and identity of the Belarusian people.

On 25 November there
was held the authorized "Slavonic March", initially
appointed on 11 November. The event was organized by Dzmitry
Dzenisenka, who has a relation to the web resource http://14vn.com
and is an informal member of a pro-Russian radical organization
acting on the territory of Belarus. The aforementioned website has a
radical orientation and stands against Belarus as an independent
state. Among the objectives of the "Slavic March" stated on
the website there were rebuilding a united and indivisible Russia,
Russian Slavic brotherhood and unity, traditional moral values, a
true Orthodox spirituality, the revival of the pan-Russian
traditions, social justice, resistance to the global electronic
concentration camp (chipization of the population). The local
authorities allowed the event, but did not allow to use
black-yellow-white flags, a symbol of the monarchic movement which
used to be the official flag during the times of the Russian Empire.
The prohibition on the use of the flag was explained by the fact that
it hadn't been registered officially in Belarus. During the
procession the marchers chanted "Glory to Russia",
"Russians advance!", etc. Some time after the action, on 29
November it was reported that an activist who had posted anti-fascist
leaflets on lampposts short before the action had been detained. The
leaflets featured a crossed Nazi symbol (eagle holding a swastika)
and the Russian coat of arms, double-headed eagle. The activist
printed them on his own printer. He was noticed by the road policemen
who called the police who then guarded the detainee to the Leninski
District Police Department, where he was interrogated, got charges
and a summons for 29 November. According to the activist, before he
was taken to the DPD, a KGB officer had approached him, examined the
leaflets and made it clear that he would not have any problems with
them. At the DPD the activist was charged with posting leaflets
without a special permission and in an undisclosed location. When
Aliaksandr came to the police on 29 November, he was told that the
case was dropped and the appropriate ruling had been mailed to him.

On 28 November the Slutsk City Executive Committee prohibited
the BPF Party to hold a rally in the memory of participants of the
Slutsk uprising. The rally was scheduled for 1 December at the city
stadium. The reason for the ban was that the local authorities would
allegedly hold some events on the occasion of the World AIDS Day.
Among the organizers of the rally in the memory of members of the
Slutsk uprising there were the chairman of the BPF Party Aliaksei
Yanukevich and the head of the Slutsk BPF branch Vital Amialkovich.
The stated number of participants was about 100 people. The week
before this members of the CCP BPF held unauthorized procession and
rally dated to the Heroes' Day near the Slutsk local core
museum.

Restriction of
freedom of association

On 27
November believers of the Protestant church "New Life"
received the decision of the Supreme Economic Court, according to
which they were ordered to leave their temple by 5 December. At 11
a.m. they were to pass the keys to the Maskouski District Housing
Repairs and Utilities Association of Minsk. The believers have been
struggling for their building for seven years already. In 2005, the
Minsk City Executive Committee adopted a ruling, according to which
the church was deprived of its plot of land. The believers passed 30
court proceedings defending their property rights, but lost all of
them. In 2006 they had to resort to a hunger-strike. After this, the
church pastor was invited to the Presidential Administration for a
talk with Aleh Praliaskouski, the then deputy head of the
Presidential Administration on ideology. Lukashenka knew about this
case and asked the believers to stop the hunger-strike for solving
the case by legal means. The believers went for it, but the case was
transferred to the Supreme Economic Court for reconsideration. In
2008 the Minsk City Executive Committee proposed them to choose
another territory for constructing a new church, in Sharanhovich
Street. However, the Protestants refused from this proposal,
referring to the fact that the decision on their case hadn't been
taken yet. Moreover, the proposed area was insufficient for the
church. On 27 November the believers held a gathering to decide on
the future actions to protect the church. The parishioners didn't
even consider the option of voluntary leaving the temple, which they
had constructed from an old cowshed. On 29 November the Maskouski
District Executive Committee of Minsk informed the bailiffs that the
Housing Repairs and Utilities Association refused from the building
of the"New Life". On 4 December the church lawyer Siarhei
Lukanin was told about this in a telephone conversation with the
bailiff of the Economic Court Volha Shcharbovich. Thus, the court
decision about the eviction was still in force, but the court
proceedings on the case were stopped and the case was passed to the
archive. Siarhei Lukanin received the appropriate documents in the
evening of 4 December in the Minsk City Economic Court.